Compounds, compositions and formulations for protecting human beings from being bitten by mosquitoes are known in the art. Generally, these compounds, compositions and formulations are based on their ability to persist on the skin of the person upon topical or surface application for a time sufficient to repel mosquitoes, or are based on their ability to attract mosquitoes so that the mosquitoes may be captured and/or killed so that they are unable to bite human beings or other animals. However, despite the various attempts to improve the attractant activity of the known mosquito attractants, these attempts have generally not been successful, as almost anyone who has used such mosquito attractants can attest.
A device for attracting and destroying mosquitoes is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5, 799,436 of James Nolen et al. The attractant used in the device disclosed in this patent is octenol (1-octen-3-ol) used in combination with heat and carbon dioxide.
The art has been searching for new and more effective attractants for mosquitoes. However, the search for more effective mosquito attractants has not generally been met with much success since most mosquito attractants have been found only to possess a limited degree of attractance activity and are generally not particularly effective. There is, therefore, a need for more effective means to attract mosquitoes in order to prevent the mosquitoes from locating and biting humans and other targets such as livestock. Moreover, this need has recently become more acute and urgent because mosquitoes have been discovered to be carriers of significant diseases that can be passed on to a target by the mosquitoes biting the target. A further need is to be able to reduce the use of environmentally unfriendly pesticides.